What is Neurofeedback?

It is also called: Brain or EEG Biofeedback and Brain Training. Neurofeedback by any other name is still a powerful tool which can lead to transformation.

“I did neurofeedback to help control my ability to regulate attention, and rest cycles.”

— NORMAN DOIDGE, Author "The Brain That Changes Itself"

Brain Training with Neurofeedback Technology

Have you struggled with stress, anxiety and getting restful sleep? Are there obstacles with attention and focus you experience which you've had difficulty overcoming? Or perhaps you just want to step up your game to the best of your ability.

What if there is technology that exists to provide the brain with valuable feedback which may help you feel and perform more optimally?

This technology exists in the form of neurofeedback or EEG biofeedback. And it's available for you to experience it in downtown Toronto.

The science isn't new or untested. In fact, biofeedback has been a growing and evolving area of study, research and practice for almost four decades.

You might have guessed by now that 'brain training' in this case, isn't referring to a game, series of exercises or a workshop to learn how to train the brain.

Neurofeedback brain training involves a series of sessions with sensors that are attached to the scalp and ears, and software that will read the brain's electrical activity and provide the user's brain with feedback for the purpose of functioning more optimally and effectively.

What is the potential for a brain trained with neurofeedback? Because an optimized brain is a more resilient and flexible brain, it's possible to experience:

Neurofeedback is a system created to provide feedback information to the brain, in a way that the brain can understand it, to strengthen and optimize brain functionality.

Due to the brain's adaptability, it is inevitable for all of us that there are ways in which the brain, and in extension: we, has/have adapted to operating less than optimally. (See Neuroplasticity Explained for more details.)

The feedback provided to the brain, often by auditory and/or visual cues, gradually promotes learning, flexibility and the ability for you and your brain to adapt to adjustments and change more efficiently and optimally.

A Neurofeedback system reads the data provided by sensors that are attached to the scalp and ears of the brain's electrical activity.

When turbulence within the electrical activity is detected, that is when the feedback is generated by the neurofeedback system.

Neurofeedback does not involve anything being put into the brain, such as electrical or magnetic stimulation.

Just as a heart rate monitor (a form of bio(logical)feedback) tells you that you heart is beating too fast or a blood pressure monitor tells you that your blood pressure is on the lower end, you decide what to do with that specific information.

In the case of the brain, however, it's also possible for the brain to take the feedback it is given and to respond unconsciously because the brain knows how to heal itself. (Again, see Neuroplasticity Explained or Norman Doidge's The Brain's Way of Healing.)

Neurofeedback has benefited from the continued advancements in technology.

However, the first foray into neurofeedback was in the late 1950's when Dr Joe Kamiya at the University of Chicago was studying consciousness and found that by providing a reward, it was possible for people to learn how to alter their own electrical brain activity.

Dr Barry Sterman at UCLA in the 1960's found that using a machine providing food pellets, cats can learn to alter their electrical brain activity to be given the reward.

There have been many advancements in neurofeedback since the idea of brain training was first conceived... From cats learning how to receive rewards to the ability for each of us to train our own brain's electrical activity in our own homes.

But since the 1950's the advancements of neurofeedback was dependent on advancements in technology.

Just like other emerging ideas and possibilities throughout history, growth and practicality of such systems were hampered by technological limitations.

There was a time when neurofeedback could only be performed by very specialized systems with bulky computers taking up entire rooms.

With the advent and proliferation of personal laptops, mobile devices, wearable devices and tablets, neurofeedback is more widely accessible than ever before.

While there are numerous brain training systems and providers available today, I utilize a neurofeedback system called NeurOptimal® because it is dynamical and non-invasive.

Brain Training Toronto provides neurofeedback brain training sessions with NeurOptimal® in downtown Toronto which has been shown to improve brain functioning. More optimized brain functioning can result in enhancements in emotional and cognitive issues, learning and academics, general wellness, and personal growth. Brain Training Toronto is operated by Mio Yokoi, Toronto Therapist but NeurOptimal® neurofeedback is not provided as a psychotherapeutic, medical or any other therapeutic treatment. Further, the neurofeedback service is provided as a separate offering outside of the scope of practice of my RP designation. Discover what brain training can do for you.